[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Why do people act like it's bizarre to look for a product consistent with ones ethics? Why do people constantly question that as though it's invalid? If you don't care about the way companies act, then fine. But to insinuate that it's somehow ridiculous for someone to care about that is a little strange to me.

It's not strange to look for a product consistent with one's ethics...but it can be hard to understand exactly what the parameters of someone's ethics are. Particularly when there is nothing that will comport exactly with their ethics and they will have to compromise them.

People insisted on telling me it's a stupid thing to care about and my criteria don't matter and on and on.

I read the previous thread and I saw no one doing that. I did see a lot of people trying to help you based on the evolving criteria you gave, however. I don't think it's very nice to criticize people who were genuinely trying to help.

And yet these same people gripe about DRM and format incompatibility and dropped support for the locked books and bolted-down e-readers. Whose fault is it that companies who do that kind of stuff continue to exist? It's yours - the consumer. You're the one buying their products. You're the one floating their behavior.

These same people? Where?

It's ironic that the people who buy Kindles and Sony's whine about their unethical behavior, knowing full well that these companies don't care that much about user input, and as long as you continue to buy their products they have no motivation to change.

A lot of people don't believe that these companies are particularly unethical. They may be according to the tenets of your religion, of course. But you can't expect everyone to have the same beliefs.

The OP has no obligation to validate or explain his ethics to you. It's not your job to judge whether or not they matter. Just stick to the criteria he wants and give him the best answer you can. If there's nothing that's a perfect match, what's the next best thing?

It's helpful to understand what's important to the OP to understand what kind of reader he might want, since there isn't one that does everything he wants.

In 7 pages of posts, almost no one did that for me. I had to do it on my own, because a couple people in particular were convinced that supporting ones ethics with ones purchases is stupid.

Arrogant much? Your thread was full of people trying to help you choose a reader based on criteria that kept changing. The reason the thread went on for 7 pages was because people were trying to figure out what you wanted. Including you.